1.) I'm about to tape a piece about #WVUmistake with @PBS and one thing I want to talk about is the destruction of the master's degree in public admin. 2.) Here's their program description.

1.) So, higher ed admins are chattering about the US News college rankings. WaPo says the "rankings are scrambled" as the "formula changes." The rankings are absurd, so why should we care?

BECAUSE ALL OF THE METRICS FOR HIGHER ED ARE CHANGING. A 🧵

washingtonpost.com/education/2023… 2.) US News CEO says new metrics focus on POSTGRADUATE EARNINGS and DEBT.

Why does this matter?

BECAUSE RICH [WHITE] KIDS FROM PRIVATE [WHITE] SCHOOLS AT PRIVATE [WHITE] UNIVERSITIES WILL HAVE HIGHER EARNINGS AND LESS DEBT.

All eyes are on #WVU and I want to talk to the professoriate about how to navigate this extremely anti-intellectual moment. I know it's frustrating and scary and the anxiety is terrible, but we must face this head-on.

(Yet another) thread. 1.) Silence is deadly. You must speak. Even if it's hard. Even if it doesn't change the immediate thing in front of you. Speaking out manages the anxiety of stasis and it helps build a community of resistance. <---- THIS IS ESSENTIAL TO BUILD A NEW THING.

If you're watching the debacle at #WVU as corporate apparatchiks dismantle the state's only Research I institution, I thought I'd highlight some of the CONSULTANT DOUBLESPEAK emerging as rpkGROUP and McKinsey reshape higher ed.

A thread. 1.) The first term is RIGHTSIZING. This is a made-up term to justify firing tenured profs and hiring non-tenure track faculty who have no job security.

As the WVU vote of no confidence in Gee looms, a few things about the picture that has emerged in the past two weeks.

A thread: 1.) The budget deficit is a mirage. Gee's spending has been out of control and there's been no check on his fiscal abuse of campus.

1.) We should be reading #WVU as a war of attrition against higher ed's insistence on inclusive critical thinking.
The point is to break the land grant universities into pieces so that the privatizers can move in and stake out the property with their AI/crypto scheme bullshit.

https://twitter.com/truthout/status/1696268919516913969

2.) The move against the foreign languages is so transparent since it feeds the America First jingoism of the white supremacists who want to seize higher ed to kill free thought.

More on WVU, demographics, voting, and slashing public higher education. 1.) Since the 1980s (and affirmative action), higher ed has become a diverse public sector. Female students are much more likely to attend public versus private institutions of higher ed. In Fall 2020, 72% of female students attended public institutions.
pnpi.org/women-in-highe…

1.) The WVU story is also about THE DESTRUCTION of the rural US before, and certainly since, the COVID-19 pandemic begin. But the worst is yet to come. It will just be VERY uneven.

Let's talk about the ENROLLMENT CLIFF as the justification divest from public education. 1.) WVU's scandal-plagued President, Gordon Gee, blamed the enrollment cliff for the massive gutting of campus in his March 2023 State of the University Address. Perplexingly, it's about INVESTING in higher ed.

You can read it here: presidentgee.wvu.edu/speeches/inves…

1.) Back to the cluster at WVU. There are TWO stories here.

ONE is about Gordon Gee being a hatchet man & spendthrift. I'm from Ohio and remember what a disaster he was at OSU. He just keeps getting passed around R1s, where he continues to fail up.

bleacherreport.com/articles/16581… 2.) The mess at OSU was after his resignation from Brown University after his "values initiative" crashed & burned.

thelantern.com/2000/02/gee-sa…

Thinking today about how hard the Bush cuts to higher ed ushered in the consultants to produce the "college experience" in the face of hiring freezes, printer quotas, and library relocations. (1/) Instead of rallying to end right-to-work legislation, pushing Dem governors/legislators to approve more lobbyists, or doing PR campaigns for free college tuition (like CA had in the 60s-70s), campuses doubled down on a "fun college experience" as the deliverable. (2/)

ICYMI, my piece on the cuts at WVU and the fallout for higher education. ⬇️⬇️

Why STATE BUDGETS MATTER and why states like WV will continue to raid K-12/pubic ed for cash. (1/)

https://twitter.com/thenation/status/1691873969492603387

Here's the 2021 base budget of WV. It looks like every other state with 4mil or fewer people. Notice the LARGEST EXPENDITURE IS K-12 PUBLIC ED at almost 43.4%. Higher ed is another 10.1%. THAT's HALF THE STATE BUDGET. (2/)

https://t.co/1235S0pvE0wvpolicy.org/fy-2021-budget…

I wrote this piece in The Nation about the cuts at WVU and how small states will crush their R1 unis to cash grab for big tech. WVU is the only R1 in WV and these cuts will shred higher ed in the state. Please read and share. (A thread)

thenation.com/article/societ… 1.) Consultant groups like rpkGROUP and McKinsey cut liberal arts programs, which bring in massive revenue for general education and for their own majors and degree programs. But the cuts don't just decimate the programs, they crush confidence in public goods.

A few things about the horror show at WVU:

1.) The point is to create a two-tier educational system where the poors get garbage and the elites get the real deal education. 2.) The dismantling will be successful in places with poor STATE funding for public higher ed (like WVU).

This was made possible by the Bush federal cuts to higher ed in 2008, which shredded higher ed investment in higher ed.

Here's the group that is dismantling WVU.

They have been hired as consultants at land-grant universities around the country to help shred the liberal arts. Would be sensible for people to know who they are, as more unis hire them:

rpkgroup.com/?fbclid=IwAR1l… Here is the template for how they dismantled this wave of programs:

enews.wvu.edu/articles/2023/…

Thinking a lot about this political moment (TFG's indictments, TN legislature, Florida, gun violence) and about how political legitimacy struggles and racial apartheid intersect. A thread. The dynamic works like this:

1.) Movements for racial equality are the excuse to undermine democratic practices (think George Floyd protests, DEI initiatives, expansion of voting rights, citizen-led democracy initiatives, etc.) through overpolicing and state violence.

Working on the new book and writing about sex panic and the production of conservative sexual expertise in the face of changing sexual norms.

A thread. 1.) It's easy to see how anti-trans/anti-queer legislation (about bathrooms, drag queen story time, etc.) is designed to punish and erase queer people from public life (and this is definitely an explicit goal).

A short (probably?) thread about ALEC's anti-drag bills.

1.) The goal of these bills is three-fold:

* create political/emotional arousal among extreme rightwingers
* stigmatize and marginalize LGBTQ people
* reconsolidate white power around the white family 2.) The arousal is important because it is directed at the in-group of white supporters who want to produce BIG FEELINGS about controlling non-normative people since they feel OUT OF CONTROL.

I have worked on campaigns and in politics for nearly 30 years. This is the most engaged I have ever seen the country in both state/local politics and national politics. A few observations: 1.) We are living through a massive political realignment. That kind of thing doesn't happen overnight but through protracted struggle. Mail-in ballots will be the terrain of struggle all week in states where fascist election deniers are in charge of certifying elections.

This historical period is going to distribute risk and suffering to white liberals in way that they refused to imagine. Some thoughts about that. (1/ ) 1.) Liberals have been content to leave reproductive justice and its attenuating issues (police violence, mass incarceration, brownfields, sexual violence) to a patchwork of activists.

Quick question for @WalmartInc. How do you think expanding family poverty and maternal death across your base demographic now that Roe is dead is going to impact your 1.) workforce and 2.) customer base? Follow up for @WalmartInc: 74 percent of Gen Z support legal abortion. How does the end of Roe affect their relationship to your brand?

Abortion is SUPER popular. They're taking it away because doing so: 1.) controls pregnant peoples' labor guaranteeing political power & 2.) produces poverty. Keep making your rational arguments & sharing your stories but understand that it's not a game of PERSUASION but one of FORCE. It's not a debate, it's an occupation.